I should hesitate to show you mine; but in your present condition, to think like me would be gain. [Footnote:  I think the worthy clergyman might say this at the present time to the general public.] Moreover, give to my words only the authority of reason; I know not whether I am mistaken.  It is difficult in discussion to avoid assuming sometimes a dogmatic tone; but remember in this respect that all my assertions are but reasons to doubt me.  Seek truth for yourself, for my own part I only promise you sincerity.

“In my exposition you find nothing but natural religion; strange that we should need more!  How shall I become aware of this need?  What guilt can be mine so long as I serve God according to the knowledge he has given to my mind, and the feelings he has put into my heart?  What purity of morals, what dogma useful to man and worthy of its author, can I derive from a positive doctrine which cannot be derived without the aid of this doctrine by the right use of my faculties?  Show me what you can add to the duties of the natural law, for the glory of God, for the good of mankind, and for my own welfare; and what virtue you will get from the new form of religion which does not result from mine.  The grandest ideas of the Divine nature come to us from reason only.  Behold the spectacle of nature; listen to the inner voice.  Has not God spoken it all to our eyes, to our conscience, to our reason?  What more can man tell us?  Their revelations do but degrade God, by investing him with passions like our own.  Far from throwing light upon the ideas of the Supreme Being, special doctrines seem to me to confuse these ideas; far from ennobling them, they degrade them; to the inconceivable mysteries which surround the Almighty, they add absurd contradictions, they make man proud, intolerant, and cruel; instead of bringing peace upon earth, they bring fire and sword.  I ask myself what is the use of it all, and I find no answer.  I see nothing but the crimes of men and the misery of mankind.

“They tell me a revelation was required to teach men how God would be served; as a proof of this they point to the many strange rites which men have instituted, and they do not perceive that this very diversity springs from the fanciful nature of the revelations.  As soon as the nations took to making God speak, every one made him speak in his own fashion, and made him say what he himself wanted.  Had they listened only to what God says in the heart of man, there would have been but one religion upon earth.

“One form of worship was required; just so, but was this a matter of such importance as to require all the power of the Godhead to establish it?  Do not let us confuse the outward forms of religion with religion itself.  The service God requires is of the heart; and when the heart is sincere that is ever the same.  It is a strange sort of conceit which fancies that God takes such an interest in the shape of the priest’s vestments, the form of words he utters, the gestures he makes before the altar and all his genuflections.  Oh, my friend, stand upright, you will still be too near the earth.  God desires to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; this duty belongs to every religion, every country, every individual.  As to the form of worship, if order demands uniformity, that is only a matter of discipline and needs no revelation.